An Interview with Anne Rice about "The Wolf Gift" Pt.I

Anne Rice, iconic author of over 25 novels, including "Interview With The Vampire", "The Vampire Lestat", "The Lives of the Mayfair Witches" and "The Songs of Seraphim" series goes back to her gothic/horror roots with the release of her new novel, "The Wolf Gift", scheduled for release on February 14th, 2012.

This time, the "Queen of Facebook" takes on the Werewolf genre, infusing it with new blood and breathing life into Reuben Golding, her Man-Wolf, the main character in a good old fashioned horror story remincient of the classic tales of pure gothic/horror.

In the following interview with Mrs. Rice, she responds to some of the questions her most ardent fans wish they could ask in her typically casual and accessible way. Please enjoy the first part of my interview with Anne Rice.

1) Why did you decide to go back to the supernatural genre?

I never really left the supernatural genre. My two books on Jesus Christ were in the supernatural genre because they dealt with Jesus as God and Man. And my Toby O'Dare books involved angels coming to Toby and offering him an opportunity to work for them in answering prayers if Toby would repent and stop being a contract assassin. So the supernatural has been a theme for me all along. The question is really why did I go back to the classic monsters of Gothic Horror, and the answer is I love those monsters and find I can write about good and evil and life and death very effectively when I write about them. I also feel that my classic horror novels --- to do with witches, vampires, the mummy, ghosts et al --- are extremely intense, for me and for the readers. And I love that intensity. I never really lost interest in classic gothic horror, not for a moment. But my writing always reflects my spiritual journey, and during my Christian years I wanted very much to write about Jesus Christ in a new way.

2) Why do you consider this a "return" to the supernatural, when a lot of your fans believe you never left?

I think the answer above covers this. It's a return to the classic elements of Gothic horror ---- the werewolf, the big old dark house with the promise of deep secrets, mysterious persons possessing mysterious power etc.

3) In the past, most of your beloved vampires and witches have been outsiders, searching for something to give their lives meaning; ie. a sense of self, a sense of family, God, and the true meaning of good and evil. What will Reuben Golding, the main character in "The Wolf Gift", be searching for?

Reuben Golding is really searching for meaning, too, and certainly he's searching for a family in his new identity as Man Wolf. Right after Reuben is bitten, and finds himself transforming periodically into the Man Wolf, he wants to know the origin of this strange power, who else possesses it and how it came to him; he also very badly needs love, and to be loved, as the Man Wolf, and soon falls in love with a beautiful woman named Laura who accepts him in the Man Wolf state. God is never far from Reuben's thoughts, but he's honest with himself from the beginning about loving "the wolf gift," and not wanting to relinquish the ability to turn into a monster- superhero. Questions of good and evil abound for Reuben because it is the scent of evil that draws him to his victims. He has to figure out why this is and how to responsibly use his power, if possible. But let me say here that The Wolf Gift like any novel ought to be exciting and fun to read no matter how much it seeks to explore the meaning of life. The best novels, for me, are those that are spectacularly entertaining and meaningful.

4) You mentioned in earlier interviews that one difference in "The Wolf Gift" from other werewolf stories will be the fact that the man-wolf, Reuben, will retain his sense of himself before, during and after the transformation. Why was it important for you to change this basic element of the werewolf story?

I simply couldn't get interested in the werewolf of film and story who goes rabidly wild as a werewolf and remembers nothing of what he did the next day. Those old werewolf films present the transformation as a curse, and as pointless. The werewolf shreds his victims indiscriminately and doesn't even seem to enjoy it. He certainly doesn't feed on them. And then he's back in the human body hearing about what he did. Where can one go with that old formula? Right to a tragic finish with a silver bullet. ----- I had to explore the idea of a Man Wolf loving the transformation itself, and being entirely conscious as he experiences it, loving the feel of the wolf coat growing out of his skin, loving the newfound strength to climb walls, vault over rooftops, etc, and loving the fact that he can smell the evil of his victims. Reuben of course experiences tremendous changes as the result of the "gift" but he is still Reuben, trying to figure things out, reflecting on what he's done and whether or not he can ever get it under control. I need a fully conscious hero. I need a hero capable of wrestling with contradictions. As I explored all this many revelations came to me --- that in the wolfen state Reuben was neither animal nor human, but an enhanced combination of the two. He possesses the cunning of a human being, with the immense strength and compulsion to act of a beast. Now, that's exciting to me. The Man Wolf has the potential to be a hero.

5) What other changes have you made to the original legend of the werewolf?

Right off, I eliminated the idea of the full moon controlling Reuben's transformation. That was key. I wanted a wholly new cosmology and origin story. The old werewolf material is magical, rather like the old vampire material. Vampires cannot be near garlic, cannot endure the sight of a cruxifix, must be in a coffin with their native soil in it, etc. The old werewolf changes during the full moon, remembers nothing. Well, I couldn't work with those limitations. If you introduce that kind of magic, the universe of the novel is too structured, too limited. I wanted Reuben wrestling with scientific questions about what's happening to him, what do hormones have to do with it, can it be controlled by strong will, etc. Of course he wonders if he is part of a moral plan, and if so, what that means. He can smell evil and he asks himself why that is. Is there a simple physical explanation for picking up the scent of the malicious, or it is this a moral given, and if so who has given him the power? To me that is the kind of complexity that makes a revival of the old classic horror monsters possible. But every author of supernatural novels today works out his or her own cosmology. The biggest change I've made, of course, is to see the transformation as a gift. Some werewolf films do speak of the "change" as a gift, but ultimately they play it out as a curse. For Reuben it is much more a gift than a curse.

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Continue to Part 2

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I hope you enjoyed the first part of my interview with Anne Rice, writer extraordinaire. If you have, please hit the subscribe button above to automatically receive any work I publish, including the second part of this interview where Mrs. Rice discusses the cause of her new found creativity, how her faith influences her writing and what she's working on next ... hint: IT'S ANOTHER BOOK!! No, seriously, I think she's going for the "knock-out" with this one.

For those who follow my Tampa Bay Books Examiner page, coming up is a review of Mary Jane Clark's "The Look of Love", a review of "Raylan" by Elmore Leonard and a review of "The Face Thief" by Eli Gottlieb. Plus, many more interviews with your favorite authors.

And, for all things off the beaten track, please visit my Tampa City Buzz Examiner page.

See ya next time!